Just north of Old City and Washington Square and west of Northern Liberties, this historic neighborhood offers a bustle of activity including well known restaurants, shopping, and more. Walking distance to UARTS, Art Institute, Temple University, and public transportation. Chinatown offers affordable rentals in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. Other close neighborhoods include the Loft District to the north and Fairmount to the west.
This past week we checked out some interesting but slightly confusing development activity at 917 Arch St. thanks to a reader tip. This building definitely has some history, having been home to Stewart, Ralph & Company about a hundred years ago, and also housing the Asam Brothers wallpaper warehouse for a stretch. By the 1970s the structure looked pretty rough, but it's taken a turn for the better in recent years. The building in 1975 Back in […]
We admit it, sometimes we're a little too optimistic about construction timelines. It's not often though, that we're as off base as we were about the hotel project at 101 N. Broad St., the former Liberty Title & Trust Building. Over four years ago, we were covering the groundbreaking for a new parking garage on the 1300 block of Arch Street and mentioned the Liberty Title building at the end of the post, almost as an afterthought. […]
We've probably only found ourselves on the 1000 block of Winter Street a handful of times over the years, likely looking for parking for a night out in Chinatown. Despite the presence of countless restaurants on surrounding blocks and the fact that the Vine Street Expressway is pretty much across the street, this block is largely residential and entirely unassuming. Looking east on Winter Street One notable exception to the residential rule on this block […]
At 9th & Spring Garden, next door to Traffic Court, sits a building that was once a FedEx terminal. For awhile, it held flea markets and it may still do so, we're honestly not sure. The building sits on a huge lot, covering almost 2.5 acres, which is certainly appropriate considering its previous use. But a new use could be in store for this property, one that would be consistent with the changes we've seen […]
The northeast corner of 11th & Wood has been vacant for decades. And this makes sense to some extent. For many years, trains ran on the elevated viaduct immediately to the west, a now-abandoned stretch which will soon become the Rail Park. And half a block to the south, the Vine Street Expressway has been moving cars from here to there for the last twenty-five plus years and let's just say that developers haven't been falling […]
Biking up 11th Street the other day, a glimmer on Spring Street caught our eye. Doubling back around the block, we discovered a that a six-story building has been framed from steel at 1031 Spring St., replacing a surface parking lot. Clearly, this project has been happening for several months but it never came onto our radar until this week. In the past Our initial view from the west From the east Developers purchased this […]
Have you ever driven into town on the Ben Franklin Bridge and decided to take the 8th Street exit? If you've taken this route, you've probably noticed the horrendous parking garage that covers 8th Street between Arch and Filbert Streets. In the past It was over two years ago that we first told you that the PPA was starting renovations in the tunnel under the garage. And it was almost exactly two years ago that […]
In February of 2012, we mentioned 932 Arch St. as an aside in a story about a project across the street. At that time, the property, which has a hair salon on the first floor, had received a five-story cinderblock addition. Previously, this was just a very deep one-story building. Back in 2009 When the property owners went to the ZBA back in 2011, they got permission for a six-story addition, with twenty apartments on […]
We produce so much content here at Naked Philly, sometimes we forget what we've covered and what we haven't. When a reader checked in recently with a rendering for an affordable housing building at 810 Arch St., we couldn't believe we hadn't heard about it. And then we realized that we actually had heard about it. And we'd written about it. Twice. Oops. Groundbreaking took place We first told you about this project almost two […]
Throughout its history, 219 N. Broad St. has been closely tied to the always-shifting identity of its surrounding area, beginning with its role in the industrialization of Philadelphia. The image below, taken from G.M. Hopkins’ 1875 Philadelphia Atlas shows that the property was owned by one M.A. Robertson. The property of M.A. Robertson, 1875 While we aren’t certain what Robertson did during his occupancy, we know that by 1895, the location had become a flour & grain […]